After the storm: 'I thought that lady was gonna die in my truck'

By Tom Watkins, CNN

Updated 1551 GMT (2251 HKT) May 18, 2013

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – Texas Gov. Rick Perry, center, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, left, survey the tornado damage in the Rancho Brazos Estates subdivision near Granbury, Texas, on Friday, May 17. At least six people were killed in a string of tornadoes that struck overnight Wednesday in North Texas.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – A heavily damaged home can be seen in this aerial view on Thursday, May 16, in Cleburne, Texas.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – Beth Poledna walks through her garage on May 16 in Cleburne, Texas, as she begins the cleanup after a tornado swept through the area.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – An upturned vehicle lies next to an uprooted tree on Thursday, May 16, in Granbury, Texas.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – Debris from damaged homes litters a neighborhood in Granbury on Thursday, May 16.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – Rescue workers search through debris in Granbury, on May 16.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – A rescue worker sifts through rubble on May 16 in Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – Rescue personnel pass remnants of destroyed houses in Granbury on May 16. There were reports of homes in Granbury being flattened with people inside.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – Pete Alaniz eyes damage to the garage of his Cleburne, Texas, rental home on May 16.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – At least 10 tornadoes touched down in northern Texas late Wednesday May 15, including this one in Millsap, west of Fort Worth.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – The living room of a Cleburne home is left without a roof on May 16.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – An antique car sits in a collapsed garage on May 16 in Granbury.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – Eva Zapata, left, waits with a relative, Dario Segura, on May 15 for news of her children, who live in the Granbury neighborhood of Rancho Brazos. Six of the storm victims came from that subdivision, the Hood County sheriff said.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – John Bouyer collects a refrigerator on May 16 that blew away from his sister-in-law's home in Granbury.

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Tornadoes hit North Texas – A trailer rests against a garage in Cleburne on May 16 after being blown into a house.

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Story highlights

Residents of one neighborhood "hopefully" can return Saturday, sheriff says

"There literally is no Rancho Brazos anymore," resident says of North Texas neighborhood

At least 16 tornadoes touched down in the area, National Weather Service says

A doctor says some victims underwent amputations

Tina and Billy Clark saw the funnel cloud approaching and did what many of their neighbors did.

"We just ran and hid in the closet," Tina Clark told CNN after one of a swarm of tornadoes descended Wednesday night into their neighborhood in Hood County, 30 miles southwest of Fort Worth, Texas.

"I was holding the door shut," Billy Clark told CNN. "You could feel the pressure from inside the house. It was like pulling on the door a little bit. The whole house was shaking really bad. It felt like the house was getting ripped apart, but we couldn't see anything from inside the closet, so we didn't know what exactly was going on."

"You could just hear stuff hitting the house," his wife said.

Once the storm had passed, they emerged from the closet and noted that their house, perhaps because of its location on a slope, had escaped the brunt of the storm.

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It was only after they got into their truck and began driving to get out of the impact zone that they began to realize that others had not fared so well.

"Once we turned the corner and got up the street a little bit, I mean, just everything was destroyed," said Billy Clark.

They came upon neighbors who asked them for a ride to a hospital. "So we started loading them up," Tina Clark said.

Among their passengers were two girls. "They couldn't even walk, they were just covered in blood," she said.

The couple then came upon a woman and her son. "They said that the wall got ripped off from the tornado and they got sucked out of the house," Billy Clark said. "The mom, it threw her into a tree head first and busted her head open."

"I thought that lady was gonna die in my truck," Tina Clark said.

"The son, he went outside to go get her during the tornado, and then it pulled him out of the house. He said it threw him through a field and he cut his head on a piece of sheet metal."

They picked up several other children, too. "The one little girl, all her teeth were knocked out," Billy Clark said. "And then the other girl, she had bones sticking out of her legs, she had a big gash in her arm."

The couple soon found the road blocked by downed trees and power lines. "There was no way out, so we took them back to the house and called the ambulance, and they just told us to wait," Tina Clark said.

Instead, they got back into the truck and drove their injured passengers as far as they could, then continued on foot. "We just had to carry them to the paramedics because they couldn't get to us," Tina Clark said.

Three people were taken to a nearby hospital, and 13 others were taken to hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, authorities have said.

Some of the patients underwent amputations, said Dr. Kerri Sistrunk, head of the trauma unit at Lake Granbury Medical Center.

By Friday afternoon, all seven people who had been reported missing had been found, police said.

But many more were homeless; 31 people slept in a shelter Thursday night.

"What always amazes me on visits like this is how fast lives can totally change," Gov. Rick Perry said Friday after touring Granbury.

Neighborhood hit hard

The devastation from what the National Weather Service said were at least 16 tornadoes that killed six people was centered in the Clarks' neighborhood of Rancho Brazos.

Of the 110 houses that had stood there Wednesday afternoon, "there's very few left untouched," said Mario Flores, director of disaster-response field operations for Habitat for Humanity, which built 61 homes in the neighborhood.

"Fifty-eight had damage, from minor to total destruction," Flores said. "It's a scene of total devastation."

"When you look down to where all the rest of the houses normally are, there's nothing there," Daniel Layne told CNN affiliate KTRK. "Piled-up cars, cars in trees, there's a car in our water tower."

He and his wife, Amanda, had waited two years to move into one of the Habitat homes.

"There literally is no Rancho Brazos anymore," Amanda Layne said.

Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds is no stranger to destruction. "I've seen bad," he said. "But this is about as bad as it gets."

A survey team for the National Weather Service concluded that the tornado that descended on this neighborhood was an EF4 -- the second-most severe classification on a scale of zero to five.

Families have not been able to return to their homes in Rancho Brazos since the storms rolled through. Deeds said Friday that "hopefully" they'll be able to go in at 8 a.m. Saturday, adding that authorities plan only to "open things back up on a limited basis." A curfew applies from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Ronna Cotten is one of those who haven't been gone back, having been warned it would be days before she couldn't re-enter her subdivision to "check to see if we have any belongings left."

She has stayed in the home of a woman who picked her up from a rescue center Wednesday night.

The mother of four said she survived by clutching to a doorknob as winds tore through her home.

Getting the latest warnings when tornadoes are headed your way and knowing what to do before, during and after one hits are all key to staying safe. A handful of apps can help you stay on top of impending dangerous weather.